A tape reel includes a core in form of a roller around which an adhesive tape that has a sticky side and a glossy side is wound. The tape may be made from plastic material. The adhesive tape is wound over the tape reel in such a manner that the sticky side of the adhesive tape is facing inwardly and a glossy side of the adhesive tape is facing outwardly. More specifically, the sticky side of a layer of the adhesive tape removably sticks to the glossy side of the layer disposed underneath thereof and can be separated off from the underneath layer by applying a dragging force on the layer.
The user of the adhesive tape desirous of dispensing a length of adhesive tape from the tape reel has to locate the free end of the adhesive tape so as to enable the user to hold the free end of the adhesive tape and apply dragging force on the adhesive tape. However, it becomes difficult for a person even with a normal vision to locate the free end of the adhesive tape. Further, it is a tedious task to locate the free end of the adhesive tape for each subsequent use and a lot of time and effort is wasted in locating the free end of the tape.
Further, the cutting of the adhesive tape requires a separate cutter. At times, it becomes difficult to locate the cutter, while the desired length of the tape has already been dispensed from the tape reel. In such cases the user may try to cut the tape by pulling the tape or using teeth for cutting the tape. However, both the methods for cutting desired length of tape have drawbacks associated therewith, particularly; the first method may damage the tape while the second method is unhygienic.
A variety of adhesive tape dispensers available in the market are provided with cutters secured thereto to facilitate dispensing a desired length of adhesive tape from the adhesive tape dispensers. More specifically, such tape dispensers include a tape-roll mounted on a bearing mechanism to facilitate rolling of the tape-roll. As a free end of the tape supported on the tape-roll is dragged to dispense the tape from the tape roll, the tape roll rotates with respect to the bearing mechanism to facilitate dispensing of the tape.
As a desired length of the tape is dispensed from the tape-roll, the tape is cut by a cutter disposed at a distance from the tape roll mounting. Further, after the desired length of the tape has been cut by the cutter, the free end of the tape sticks on the cutter that acts as a stay to facilitate locating of the free end of the tape for subsequent uses. However, such adhesive tape dispensers are clumsy, involve more number of hardware components, difficult to handle and operate. Further, mounting of the tape roll on the bearing mechanism of the tape dispenser is a tedious task.
Further, in case of duct tapes, the sticky side of the tape is very sticky and it requires a large dragging force for separating the subsequent layers of the tape from each other. Such high dragging forces may damage the tape. The damage caused to the tape due to dragging forces applied thereon for dispensing the tape from the roll may be aggravated if the tape is made of fragile material such as paper or film. Further, if the dragging forces are transmitted to the tape dispenser, the tape dispenser may get damaged. In order to prevent damages to the tape dispenser due to high dragging forces transmitted thereto, additional hardware components are configured on the tape dispenser. Accordingly, in the case of a tape dispenser for duct tape, the tape dispenser is made rigid, thereby increasing manufacturing cost of the tape dispenser. Still further, such adhesive tape dispensers lack arrangement for preventing sticking of the adhesive tape back to the roll from which it has been dispensed.
Still further, in case of the adhesive tape dispensers known in the prior art there is no provision for ensuring positive safety for the adhesive tape against any damage thereof. Still further, in case of wider adhesive tapes, area of the adhesive is greater as such more force is required for overcoming the adhesive forces and separating the subsequent layers of the tape, accordingly, the adhesive tape dispensers known in the prior art are in-effective in dispensing wider tapes as the adhesive tape dispensers of the prior art utilize dragging forces.
Still further, the adhesive tape dispenser known in the prior art is difficult to use. More specifically, as a user drags the tape from the tape dispenser, the tape dispenser may also get dragged as a result of the dragging forces. In order to prevent the tape dispenser from dragging, the tape dispenser is made heavy or the tape dispenser is mounted on a worktable, both methods for preventing the tape dispenser from sliding have drawbacks associated therewith. If the tape dispenser is made heavy, the manufacturing cost of the tape dispenser is increased. If the tape dispenser is mounted on the work-table, its portability is hampered. Attempts have been made in prior art to use a cutter designed from a single wire.
The user of the adhesive tape desirous of dispensing a desired length of adhesive tape from the tape reel has to locate the free end of the adhesive tape and apply dragging force on the adhesive tape, with effect to this, the adhesive tape dispenser is required to have a heavy construction for dispensing the tape by dragging, so that the main body of the adhesive tape dispenser need not move when dragging force is applied on the tape. Accordingly, the overall mass as well as cost of the adhesive tape dispenser increases.
The adhesive tape dispensers known in the prior art include a stay on which a free end of the adhesive tape dispensed from the roll can stick, thereby facilitates location of the free end of the adhesive tape for subsequent uses thereof. However, adhesive tape dispensers known in the prior art have drawbacks associated therewith, for example, the stay used with the convention tape dispensers fail to hold the tape firmly while dispensing the tape and the tape may stick back to the roll, thereby causing a lot of in-convenience. More specifically, the adhesive tape may slip from the stay which is provided to stick the tape there-to and becomes difficult to separate there-from.
Still further, the stay on which the free end of the adhesive tape sticks is generally disposed at a distance from the bearing mechanism on which the tape-roll is mounted. Such a configuration of the adhesive tape dispenser keeps the sticky surface of adhesive tape supported between the stay and the tape-roll constantly in contact with moist, dusty environment that may de-grade the sticky side of the adhesive tape supported between the stay and the tape-roll and result in wastage of that part of the tape. Still further, the adhesive tape dispenser supported between the stay and the tape-roll sags there-between and a sticky face of the tape may touch a bottom portion of the tape dispenser, stick to it and get damaged.
The adhesive tape dispenser in accordance with the prior art is prone to cause accidents. More specifically, the adhesive tape dispenser in accordance with the prior art is having a configuration such that the user has to drag the desired length of the tape up-to the cutter and press the tape against the cutter disposed beneath the tape. As the tape gets cut by the cutter, the user's hand holding the free end of the tape remains in motion due to inertia and may hit a hard surface. Still further, as the cutter used in the prior art adhesive tape dispenser is having sharp cutting edges that are exposed and not covered such cutting edges may cause accidents.
Furthermore, the adhesive tape dispenser known in the prior art are configured for handling a particular tape dimension only and fail to handle tapes of different dimensions. Still further, the adhesive tape dispenser known in the prior art requires the tape to be dragged while dispensing; such dragging action may cause jerks and damage the tape. In order to facilitate smooth rolling of the tape while dragging and smooth drawing of the tape from the tape roll additional hardware components are required. Still further, the tape dispensers of the prior art fail to rewind the tape in case an excess length of the adhesive tape has been dispensed by the tape dispenser. Accordingly, this may cause wastage of the tape.
Further, the adhesive tape dispenser known in the prior art fails to cater different widths of tape, accordingly, adhesive tape dispensers of different configurations are required for catering different widths of adhesive tapes. In accordance with another tape dispenser known in prior art the adhesive tape roller is encapsulated in a casing which is provided with a cutter assembly configured thereon. However, such an encapsulated arrangement lacks flexibility to be used for different dimensioned adhesive tape rollers. Accordingly, the adhesive tape dispenser includes a plurality of hardware components, thereby making the adhesive tape dispenser prone to wear related problems and thereby require frequent maintenance. Furthermore, the adhesive tape dispenser known in the prior art is expensive.
Accordingly, there is a need for an arrangement for handling adhesive tape, more particularly, an adhesive tape dispenser that is simple in construction, in-expensive and user friendly. Furthermore, there is a need for an adhesive tape dispenser that eliminates the dragging operation for dispensing the tape there-from and accordingly eliminates the drawbacks associated with dragging of the tape for dispensing the tape.
Still further, there is a need for an adhesive tape dispenser that prevents sticking of the tape dispensed off from the tape roll back to the roll. Further, there is a need for an adhesive tape dispenser that is adapted to be used for adhesive tapes of varying dimensions. Further, there is need for an adhesive tape dispenser that may be easily mounted on the tape roll and flexibly folded thereon to facilitate convenient packaging of the adhesive tape dispenser along with the tape roll.